Reinforced bottom structure for railway cars and similar vehicles



Dec. 10, 1957 A. cs. DEAN REINFORCED BOTTOM STRUCTURE FOR RAILWAY CARS AND SIMILAR VEHICLES Original Filed Jan. 4, 1949 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 1 E I: III I: 1:! l: [:1 I: [:1 III :I E

I N H 1 1 k I 4 (U u 21 T INVENTOR Alber r (I. Deck iM/h' AGENT Dec. 10, 1957 DUEAN 2,815,723 REINFORCED BOTTOM STR CTU'RE FOR RAILWAY CARS AND SIMILAR VEHICLES Original Filed Jan. 4. 1949 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR Albefi G. Dean. v W/K AGENT:

United States Patent REINFORCED BGTTOM STRUCTURE FOR RAIL- WAY CARS AND SIMILAR VEHICLES Albert G. Dean, Narberth, Pa., assignor to The Budd Company, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Continuation of abandoned application Serial No. 69,102, January 4, 1949. This application July 9, 1954, Serial No. 442,229

2 Claims. (Cl. 105-422) This is a continuation of applicants copending original application Serial No. 69,102, filed January 4, 194 9, for the same inventor under the same title, which is now to be abandoned.

The invention relates to an improvement in railwaycars and similar vehicles of the type which have a shear-panel floor reinforced by transverse vertical webs and structurally secured to longitudinal sill members, such as a center sill and/ or side sills.

Such shear panel floor transmits in its horizontal plane tension and compression stresses in all directions, such as for instance stresses tending to move one side of the body relative to the other side in the longitudinal direction of the car.

While such a shear panel, together with its transverse vertical webs, represents a continuous cross bearer of great strength, it is customary to provide additional cross bearers of greater height than the floor panel with its webs. Such cross bearers or beams are provided at the truck-supporting points and called at this location bolster beams. Besides, there are provided one or two further cross bearers or beams between the bolster beams, such additional cross bearers often being called needle beams. Finally, it is customary to provide transverse beams of sills at the extreme ends of the car.

The distance between the described customary transverse beams is relatively great and it is sometimes required to increase the number of cross beams, thereby reducing the spacing between the transverse beams. It is an object of the invention to effect such increase of the number 'of cross beams without material increase in expense, material and weight.

The invention achieves this and other objects in forming supplemental cross bearers by structurally connecting additional webs with the shear panel. Preferably, such webs are arranged in pairs, are formed. by Z-sections, and the two webs of each pair diverge from the sides of the car toward its center line. The'height of these webs is preferably equal to or of the same order as the height of the customary transverse webs of the floor panel. The supplemental webs of each pair may be arranged so that one of the ordinary transverse webs is located between them.

The briefly outlined objects and features of the invention as well as other advantages and the means for achieving them are fully set forth in the following description of one embodiment of the invention, which is illustrated in the attached drawing.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a small scale diagrammatic side elevation of a railway car;

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic plan view of an underframe or bottom structure of the car;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary plan view, on a larger scale, of a portion of the underframe shown in Fig. 2 in the region of one supplemental cross bearer;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view of the underframe, the view being partly in section and broken away substantially along line 4-4 of Fig. 2; and

Figs. 5 and 6 are fragmentary longitudinal sections along lines 55 and 6-6 of Fig. 3.

The illustrated railway car body is supported by trucks T and comprises side walls S, roof R, and end walls E, which may be of any known or otherwise appropriate construction, and an underframe or bottom unit U. The underframe structure U is intended to be usedas part of a body in which underframe, side walls, and roof together constitute a closed box-sectional girder.

The underframe or bottom unit U has a horizontal shear panel structure 9 which extends over substantially the entire width and at least a large portion of the length of the car, is secured to top flanges 10 of a center sill 11,. and is reinforced over its entire width by transverse websv 12 which are spaced from each other in longitudinal di-- rection. The margins of panel 9 and the ends of Webs 12 on each side of the car fit telescopingly between the: upper wall 13 and the lower wall 14 of an inwardly fac ing channel-section portion of side sills 15 and are secured to these walls. Each sill 15 has a vertically arranged wall or web 16 and downwardly and inwardly directed web or flange extensions 17. Flanges 18 along the upper margins of webs 12 are interconnected by 1ongitudinal stringers 19 and carry the floor boards 20.

The side sills are interconnected by end sills 21, bolster beams 22 and cross bearers 23 which are of known location and construction. Fig. 4 shows the construction of one of such cross bearers 23 as comprising vertical webs 23A and a bottom web 2313 which are structurally connected with shear panel structure 9, center sill 11 and side sills 15'. The bolster beams 22 and cross bearers 23 are of relatively great height and extend downwardly beyond the floor panel. These beams and cross bearers are designed for transmitting vertical loads as well as transverse ioads and shocks.

The structure described so far is substantially identical with the type of structure disclosed in Patent 2,504,112, End Underframe Construction for Vehicles, Especially Railway Cars, issued April 18, 1950, jointly to applicant and Walter B. Dean on an earlier, originally co-pending, application.

At each of the locations about half way between the two cross bearers 23 and between each cross bearer and the nearest bolster beam is arranged one of the supplemental cross bearer structures 24 constituting the subject matter of the present invention.

Each of the structures 24 comprisestwo Z-section members 25 secured by one horizontally arranged arm 26 to the floor panel 9., having a vertically arranged web 27 and the uppper horizontal arm 28 arranged slightly below the level of flanges 18 of the ordinary webs 12 and below the floor boards 20. The upper arms 28 of the sections 25 are directed toward each other. The two sections 25 are widely spaced from each other in the longitudinal mid region of the underfrarne and converge toward the side sills. One ordinary floor web 12 is, in the illustrated embodiment, arranged between the pair of supplemental sections 25.

The lower arms 26 of members 25 are secured throughout their lengths, or at least between the center sill and the side sills, to the floor panel 9 such as by spot welding. In addition, these arms may be secured by plug welds 29 to floor panel 9 and flanges 10 of the center sill. Reinforcing plates 30 are secured, preferably by spot welding, to the floor panel and the top flanges 10 of the center sill on both sides of the sections 25.

The top arms 28 of members 25 and flange 18 of the web between them are secured at and adjoining each side sill 15 by a gusset plate 31 which in turn is over- Fatented Dec. 10, 1951 3 lapped by and secured to the top wall 13 of the side sill. The connections are preferably by spot welding, as indicated in the drawing. While the height of the sections 25 is small enough to permit the insertion of their ends together with plate 31 between top and bottom walls of the side sills, the height of the regular webs would not permit this. For this reason, the end flange 18 of the web between the sections 26 is offset downward- 1y, as visible at 32 in Fig. 5.

'The structure embodying the invention, as it is illustrated in the drawing, may be formed of high tensile, that is highly: cold worked austenitic chromium sheet steel sections mostly connected with each other by electric spot welding. Members 25 forming the supplemental cross bearers are preferably of a relatively heavy gauge, that is of a gauge heavier than that of the floor panels and side sills and in the order of the gauge of. the center sill. The gauges for a normal length modern passenger car may be of about the following order: floor or shear panel 9 and webs 12, about 0.04"; side sills 15 and regular cross bearers 23, about 0.09"; center sill 11 as well as members 25 of the supplemental cross bearers, about 0.20"; and gussets 31, about 0.125". The spacing for the regular fioor panel webs 12 may be about As indicated hereinbefore, the bolster beams 22 and the cross bearers 23 extend downwardly beyond the floor panel 9 and, therefore, have relatively great height. These beams and bearers are adapted to sustain heavy loads and impacts in horizontal as well as in vertical directions. The supplemental cross bearers formed with the aid of members 25 and the gusset plates 31, however, have relatively little vertical load sustaining qualities and are designed mainly for sustaining impacts hitting the car in transverse direction. This means that the supplemental or auxiliary cross bearers increase the safety when, in the case of an accident, the car is struck from the side.

The invention is not restricted to the illustrated and described embodiment, but is susceptible to modifications without departing from its spirit and scope. The invention is applicable, for instance, to similar elongated prismatic vehicle bodies, such as trucks, busses and trailers. The spacing, the arrangement, and the cross section of the members forming the supplemental cross bearers may be changed. For example, the members of a supplemental cross bearer may be arranged between two successive regular reinforcing webs without a regular web between them.

.What is claimed is:

1. In an underframe for railway cars or similar vehicles of elongated prismatic shape, the underframe being of the type made largely of sheet metal, being provided with a horizontally arranged shear panel extending substantially over the entire width of the underframe and over a major portion of the length thereof and having webs arranged in upright transverse planes which are about equally spaced from each other, said webs being structurally connected with said shear panel and extend ing likewise over substantially the entire width of the underframe, and said underframe having at least one longitudinally extending sill which is structurally connected with said shear panel and said webs, said underframe being further characterized by several pairs of additional webs each of which is arranged between two adjacent ones of said first-named webs so that the webs of each pair flank one of said first-named webs, said second-named webs being likewise structurally secured to the shear panel and said sill and extending transversely to the length of the car, said additional webs being of a heavier gauge than said shear panel and said first-named webs and each pair of them constituting together with the portion of the shear panel to which they are attached and the adjoining ones of said first-named webs a supplemental cross bearer increasing the strength of the frame against transverse collision shocks.

2. Underframe structure for railway cars and similar vehicles of elongated prismatic shape, said underframe consisting largely of light gauge sheet steel, comprising longitudinally extending, inwardly facing channel-section side sills and a sheet metal shear panel between them, said shear panel being provided with upright, transversely extending sheet metal webs which are longitudinally spaced from each other, said panel and webs fitting telescopingly into said channel-section side sills and are secured to the walls thereof, said underframe being characterized by at least one pair of additional transversely extending webs of a heavier gauge than said shear panel and said first-named webs but of slightly less height than the latter, said additional webs being secured to said shear panel, fitted telescopingly into said channel-section side sills and secured to them by means of gusset plates, said additional webs together with the adjacent portions of the shear panel constituting a supplemental cross bearer strengthening the underframe against transverse collision shocks.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Re. 16,302' Sherman Mar. 30, 1926 840,797 Ostrander Jan. 8, 1907 845,934 Dodds Mar. 5, 1907 1,081,942 Beach Dec. 23, 1913 1,429,400 Bloedow et al Sept. 19, 1922 1,900,711 Howard Mar. 7, 1933 2,120,542 Blest et a1 June 14, 1938 2,244,390 Dean June 3, 1941 2,504,112 Dean et al Apr. 18, 1950 2,504,113 Dean Apr. 18, 1950 2,533,485 Lynes Dec. 12, 1950 2,565,678 Dean Aug. 28, 1951 

